Historic triumph
Brit Beau Greaves makes darts history
April 27, 2026 – 11:34 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Beau Greaves defeated a former world champion in the final – and in the process set a mark that no woman had ever achieved before.
Darts player Beau Greaves became the first woman to win an open tournament on the PDC tour. The 22-year-old Brit triumphed in the eleventh event of the Players Championship in Milton Keynes on Monday. In the final, Greaves beat former world champion Michael Smith (England) 8:7 and decided the match with a 142 checkout.
“I can’t believe it, I’m so proud,” said Greaves after her coup: “I had a really difficult start to the year. This is a complete shock.”
Greaves even refuted her own assumptions. As recently as 2024, she said that women could “never keep up with men”. She “just don’t think we’ll ever be good enough to compete against players like Luke Humphries, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler,” she said at the time.
On the way to the title in Milton Keynes, a good 80 kilometers northwest of London, Greaves also beat former world champions Rob Cross 6:5 and Gary Anderson 7:1.
It was only in February that Greaves became the first woman to throw a nine-darter on the PDC tour. In the nine-darter, the perfect leg in darts, a professional plays the 501 points with the fewest possible number of nine throws to zero.
Anderson also managed a nine-darter against Alexander Merkx in the round of 16. However, “The Flying Scotsman” had no chance in the semi-final against Greaves.
